Once A spider lived in the inner sanctum of the Sri Kalahasthi temple and worshipped the Lord by weaving webs with elaborate temples and images of Shiva.

The morning dew drops would make the cobwebs look like pearl houses and sunrays on the dew drops would make them shine like rubies. But all this would break and crumble with the blowing of the wind. The spider would connect the broken threads and weave the web all over again.

One day Lord Shiva, to test the spider’s devotion, burned all the spider webs with the lamp that was shining near His shrine. The enraged spider swallowed the flame and sacrificed its life. The spider became angry and was about to gulp down the flame, endangering its life.

Appreciative of its devotion, Lord Shiva appeared and granted the spider a boon. The spider requested moksha, release from the cycle of births and deaths. Accordingly it became one with Lord Shiva.

Cobra’s worship to lord Shiva:

Once upon a time, a cobra worshipped daily Lord Shiva at the Sri Kalahasthi temple by offering rare gems, pearls and rubies that it brought from Naga Logam, a mythical place where Nagas (serpents) dwell. Serpents are one of India’s most visible symbols of the spiritual power of the Self.

After the snake had worshipped, an elephant, fresh after its purifying bath in the nearby river, came to worship Lord Shiva at the Sri Kalahasthi temple. The elephant used to bring water in its trunk and flowers. It sprayed the altar with water from its trunk, scattering the gems. It then proceeded to decorate the altar with leaves from a holy tree. The elephant prayed the God regularly with sincerity.

When the cobra returned it was angered to see its offerings disrespected and replaced by mere leaves. So it replaced the leaves with gems. This charade repeated itself every day until the cobra became fed up and decided to punish whoever was destroying its offerings.

Sacrifices of Cobra and the Elephant:

One day the cobra decided to wait after its Pooja to find out the culprit. When the elephant returned to worship with its leaves the cobra slithered up its trunk and injected its venom. In agony the elephant dashed its head on the stone altar in an attempt to kill the snake. The snake fell out of the trunk and died from its wounds and the elephant succumbed to the poison.

Understanding that both had sacrificed their lives for the sake of their love of the Lord Shiva resurrected them gave them liberation and took them into his own body. At the foot of the Shiva lingam in the Sri Kalahasthi temple even now one can see a spider, two elephant tusks and a five-headed serpent to remind the devotee of these acts of supreme devotion.

The spider was Vishwakarma’s (architect of the deva ganas) son Oornanabha. He was replicating Brahma-the creator’s job and an annoyed Brahma cursed him to become a spider. The snake was once cursed by Siva himself. The elephant was a Deva (Pramadha) cursed by Siva’s wife, Parvathi, when he intruded their privacy.

Story of Kannappa Nayanar:-

Thinna is a devotee, who attained salvation through his unstinted devotion. He is none other than Arjuna of Mahabharata fame, who asks Lord Shiva for Moksha (salvation) and was born as Thinna, a hunter, to attain the same.

He was a rustic tribal lad. Lord Siva appeared to him in a dream and inspired him to worship him. One day he strayed into a forest while hunting, and came across a Siva Lingam, covered with leaves. Taking pity on the lonely God, he tried to lift it and take it to his village but failed in shaking the Lingam.

Failing in his efforts, Thinna cleared the Lingam and the surrounding place of all the leaves and went in search of food to offer to the God. He killed a wild boar and brought its roasted meat as an offering to Siva. He brought water from the nearby river to sprinkle on the Lingam. Since he had no vessel to carry water, he filled his mouth with water and brought it.

The priest’s Doubts:

A priest used to go there once a week, clean up the place, light a lamp and cook food and offer it to the Lord Shiva. After Thinna’s worship, when the priest came on his weekly visit he found to his shock, the whole place desecrated, with meat strewn around. He cleaned the place and did his routine rituals. But the next time he came to the place the place was full of meat as Thinna performed his way of Pooja with meat regularly.

The priest prayed Lord Shiva and complained about the mess. Lord Shiva explained him about the Thinna and offered to prove that Thinna’s devotion was superior. The priest hid behind a tree and waited for seeing Thinnaâ€™s Pooja. Thinna came with meat and water in his mouth and performed his Pooja.

Kannapar’s Devotion and sacrifice:

To test Thinna’s devotion Lord Siva shed blood from one of His eye. On seeing the blood tried to stop it in several ways but in vein. Finally Thinna without hesitation, Thinna scooped his own eye out with his arrow and fixed it to Lord Shiva and the blood stopped bleeding immediately.

Then the other eye of Lord Shiva started bleeding blood. Thinna was ready to repeat the same, to scoop out the other eye from his own and fix it on the Shiva Lingam. For fixing the eye properly as he might become blind, he put his one leg over the Shiva Lingam and stared scooping his other eye.

Lord Shiva stopped him doing the act. Pleased with his unstinting devotion, Lord Siva offered him a boon. Thinna asked for salvation. Since Thinna offered his eyes to God he is popularly called Kannappa Nayanar – ‘kannu’ being the Telugu and Tamil word for eye.

Story of Vali and Sri Kalahasthi temple:-

The Siva Linga which is in Sri Kalahasthi, actually belonged to Vali ( Sugreeva’s brother) of Ramayana. Once, on his way to some place (being an ardent devotee of Siva, he carried the lingam wherever he went), Vali stopped near a lake for morning prayers.

He placed the Lingam on the ground and went to take bath in the lake, before worshipping the Lingam. After the Pooja, when Vali tried to lift the Lingam to proceed with his journey, he could not lift it from its place, however hard he tried. He came to the conclusion that Lord Siva was attracted by the beautiful big lake and hence did not want to leave.

He spotted a mountain nearby, uprooted it and dumped it in the lake, which flowed as the present Swarnamukhi River. Even then the Lingam would not budge. So Vali had to give up his efforts and proceed, leaving the Lingam there at Sri Kalahasthi temple.